Structure of presentation . IntroductionContending theories on women's relationship with technologyClarification of conceptsThe relevance of ICT in women empowerment processChallenges of information dissemination in the SADC regionThe niche of community radio stationsConclusion / way forward .

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Women and Information Communications ICT in the SADC Region by Richard Iroanya

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1. Women and Information Communications (ICT) in the SADC Region by Richard Iroanya Africa Institute of South Africa (AISA)

2. Structure of presentation Introduction
Contending theories on women’s relationship with technology
Clarification of concepts
The relevance of ICT in women empowerment process
Challenges of information dissemination in the SADC region
The niche of community radio stations
Conclusion / way forward

3. Introduction Set against the background of global marginalisation of women in science and technology and the need to redress this situation as exemplified by: 4th World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. This conference discussed among other things computer technology, satellite and cable televisions as areas in which women were marginalised and needed to participate in.
World Telecommunications Development Conference held in Valleta Malta in 1998 hosted by the the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). Among other issues the conference participants tried to develop policy relevant papers on gender and ICT. World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) held in 2003 also focused on the empowerment of women through ICT.
At the 47th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in 2003 world leaders focused mainly on: the participation and access of women to the media, information and communications technologies and their impact on and use as an instrument for the advancement and empowerment of women.

4. Introduction (Cont…) The paper appraises the challenges women who disseminate information in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region face.
Considering the challenges posed by other components of ICT such as basic skills, which most women in urban and rural areas lack; it stresses the niche of local initiatives such as community radio broadcasting as an effective means of information dissemination among women in the region over other technologies. Other initiatives that can aid information dissemination, hence facilitate the process of women empowerment in the region are also explored.

5. Contending theories on women’s relationship with technology Liberal approach: Argues that Technology is inherently neutral. Sees the challenge faced by women as man made. Caused by stereotypical sex roles in our societies. Argues further that women covered by history needs to be historicized.
The Marxist school examines women’s marginalisation in terms of class. Marginalisation caused by gender division of labour, and historical and cultural view of technology as the domain of men. Sees technology as gender neutral but misused by under capitalism.
Third world approach. Argues that western technologies are not appropriate to developing societies.
Technology as a cultural expression. Argues that technology is inherently masculine and it not neutral. Technology is seen as a function of culture and tradition, history, and geographical conditions.

6. Conceptual clarification ICT is severally viewed. “A diverse set of technological tools and resources to create, disseminate, store, bring value-addition and manage information” (Nath 2001:318)
It is also defined as: “A complex and heterogeneous set of goods, applications and services used to produce, distribute, process and transform information” (Marcelle 2000). A critical look at these definitions will reveal that they fairly cover various aspects of both old and new ICT and have not limited the concept to just computer hardware, e-mail, or the Internet.
Following in the same path, the concept of ICT is employed here as an umbrella term that connotes digital technologies (computer, software and hardware, internet, electronic mail and multimedia), telecommunications technologies, such as fixed-line and mobile telephones, cable satellite technologies and radio, as well as the print media (newspapers, magazines, journals etc).

7. Conceptual clarification (Cont…) The foregoing discussion centres on the challenges facing women responsible for the dissemination of information in the southern African region using the means of ICT. This leads to the posing of the question:
Who are women responsible for information dissemination in the SADC region?
What kind of information do they disseminate?
What is the essence of disseminating such information?
There are no particular individual, group of individuals, organization, ministry or department solely entrusted with this responsibility in the SADC region. Rather there are various groups, organizations and departments involved in this task or whose works are women oriented. For the purpose of this paper, women responsible for information dissemination within the SADC region may be categorized into five or more groups.

8. Conceptual clarification (Cont…) Women who are involved in the private sector, especially experts directly involved in policy formulation of ICT companies, the creation of hardware, software, and management of information services.
Women who are in senior government positions such as lawmakers, ministers, MECs, and directors of public enterprises, who by virtue of their positions are directly involved in policy-making especially as it relates to ICT and women empowerment processes.
Women academics and experts in ICT in various institutions of learning throughout the southern African region. These women impact knowledge to older and younger generations of men and women, and use the electronic and print media to create awareness on women marginalization and empowerment processes.

9. Conceptual clarification (Cont…)
Women activists who are involved in women-oriented international and local Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), trade unions, and also those engaged in Community Based Organizations (CBOs), as volunteers or community media activists. Through advocacy activities such as television programmes like Motswako and Topbilling, these women make positive impact on the lives of other women in both urban and rural areas of southern African region.
Ordinary women who may or may not be community leaders in urban and rural areas who want their voices to be heard on important issues affecting them are equally included because they play a role in communication process.

10. Conceptual clarification (Cont…) Information disseminated by women is of various forms and purposes. It ranges from education, agriculture, healthcare, political and human rights, to economic information, and capacity building.
The essence of disseminating this information strongly tends towards preventing the marginalization of women by empowering them to become equal partners with men in the development processes of their countries and region
In the context of this paper, information dissemination is viewed as a two way process of encoding and decoding. Encoding is a communication process of sending out information and decoding is the process of receiving, collating, interpreting and responding to encoded information. Thus, challenges facing women responsible for information dissemination in the SADC region are both in using ICT facilities to encode and decode information.

11. The relevance of ICT in women empowerment process All SADC countries have acknowledged the strategic importance of this sector to their quest for development. In this regard SADC adopted the Protocol on Transport, Communications and Meteorology in 1996.
In August 2001 SADC member states further adopted a Declaration on Information and Communications Technology.
Considering the importance of ICT to information dissemination in the region, SADC Parliamentary Forum (PF) adopted a resolution on Broadcasting Reforms in SADC countries in April 2006.
These interventions aim at accelerating the development of ICT and extending of its use to every one as a necessary tool for development in the region.
It has enormous potential to empower women in southern African region to overcome societal barriers to development, strengthen communities, governance institutions, and economies of countries in the region.

12. Challenges of information dissemination in SADC region The challenges facing women in this regard are physical, political, and economical, others are social-cultural, and technical in nature. Specifically, they include, but not limited to:
Infrastructural challenges: Inadequate infrastructure is a major challenge that confronts women who disseminate information in the region. The Kingdom of Lesotho relies heavily on South Africa for electricity supply and transport infrastructure. In Malawi it is estimated that only 10% of the population have access to electricity. Electricity is an indispensable infrastructure for the development of the ICT sector.
In countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), several years of civil war and obsolete telecommunications infrastructure hinder information dissemination among women. The same reasons equally explain the poor state of ICT development in Angola.
Within the countries, there are also disparities between urban and rural areas in terms of infrastructural development. Thus, ICT infrastructure tends to be concentrated in the urban areas more than in the rural areas

13. Challenges (cont…) There is limited access to ICT in the African region. Large communities in the region are still not linked to the world even with the advent of mobile telephone. Teledensity is the lowest in the world. For telephone, it is about 7.6 telephones per 100 persons and .1.3 computers per 100 persons.
Limited access to ICT also hinders women from availing themselves of the benefits of e-governance facilities designed for the public. This has also resulted in some governments in the region refusing to vigorously pursue e-governance as a veritable channel of interaction between them and their populations. A good example in this regard is Botswana. Authorities in this country have argued, “Access to IT, specifically the Internet, remains too scarce to justify investment into government e-portals for public services.” (Communications Handbook 2005).
There are also socio-cultural challenges such as widespread poverty and illiteracy in many SADC countries. The level of illiteracy among women in the region is also very high, resulting in lack of basic computer skills.
There is also linguistic barrier, as the language of ICT is predominantly English.

14. Challenges (cont…) At the policy level, women face two main challenges. First at the international level and secondly at the national level.
At the international level Africa is digitally marginalised both in terms of ownership, control and regulation of the technologies that fall under the umbrella of ICT and in the benefits that accrues from them. The ICT sector is heavily dominated by transnational corporations (TNCs) and their subsidiaries that develop software and hardware technologies, telephones, and satellite networks.
Internet Service Providers (ISP) control every thing that is necessary for the Internet to work. These include information content and infrastructure, Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, domain name systems, and technical standard, communication protocols, mail and document formats, and sound and video formats.
The monopoly of these multinational corporations has been made possible through Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime. Existing IPR regime is harsh and unfair and therefore hinder the free flow of information necessary for women empowerment in regions such as southern Africa.
At the national level women still face serious challenges in using ICT for information dissemination. Inadequate policies in some countries such as Angola, and ineffective implementation of gender sensitive policies where they exist. E.g South Africa and Lesotho.

15. Challenges (cont…) Licensing agencies in the SADC countries regulate the industry, set criteria and rules that very few if any women-owned businesses can meet. Thus, owning of telephone companies, satellite television and radio stations is difficult even with the liberalisation of these sectors in some countries such as South Africa.
Crime is another challenge that women face in disseminating information in the region. In South Africa this has become a major concern. ATMs are bombed, schools vandalized, and computers used in training students stolen.

16. The niche of community radio broadcasting The first advantage is that radio broadcasting tends to be the commonest of the technologies that fall under the umbrella of ICT. This makes radio sets readily available and also affordable by women who live in urban and rural areas of the southern African region.
The process of obtaining license to operate radio stations is also more liberalised than licensing procedures for other components of the ICT
Community radio can be used to reach a wider audience. It is believed that an estimated 60 percent or more of the African population are reached by radio broadcasting networks.
Operating a radio set does not require rigorous training and skill. It is also not deterred by lack of electricity, good roads and other infrastructure because it can be operated with dry cell batteries and can also be effortlessly carried about even by nomadic people. While mainstream media address issues of little or no significance to rural and urban women community radio stations focus on pertinent social issues and causes.
Radio broadcasting creates opportunities for ‘story swap’ or exchange programmes between community radios in the region. Through this exchange programmes information on issues affecting societies and women in particular are disseminated.

17. Conclusion/recommendations ICT is indispensable in information dissemination among women in the SADC region and it is also a strong tool for empowerment. To improve information dissemination among women in the region, it is recommended that:
National governments create new infrastructure, improve, and maintain existing ones and improve the socio-economic condition of their peoples by creating employment opportunities.
Regional and national bodies use existing gender units within government departments, where this exists and to create such units where non-exist, to promote women initiatives in the region.
Stakeholders should consider the establishment of community access points such as telecenters, in rural areas of the SADC region where women could be provided with information to support their socio-economic and political empowerment and from where they can also respond to government interventions.
Technical education among women should also be encouraged. The objective of this strategy should be to improve women’s technical capacity, especially as it relates to skills acquisition and employment opportunities in the ICT sector of the national and regional economy.

18. Conclusion/Recommendations Sensitisation of women to the role of ICT in the empowerment processes of governments in the region should be highlighted at access points. Telecenters for example should be used to provide information on legal matters affecting women such as violence against women and children, government social grants, religious laws, workers rights (minimum wages), and fundamental human rights.
Licensing procedures for the acquisition of ICT technologies should be more liberalised so as to enable women owned companies obtain licenses to provide telecommunication services.
Mobile phones have become important means of communication. However, lack of network services in rural areas of the region has not allowed for maximum utilisation of this channel of communication for women empowerment. More so, the technology is relatively expensive and moves so fast that women in urban and rural areas may not keep up with the pace. Stakeholders should consider extending network services to remote areas of the region and regulating the price of this technology.
Finally, it is equally important that stakeholders en-gender policy interventions as part of the process of information dissemination and women empowerment in the SADC region.

19. Conclusion/Recommendations
Countries in the region such as South Africa and even Lesotho to some extent have gender sensitive ICT policies intended to address the issue of marginalisation of women in this sector. This is a good development; however, evolving gender sensitive policies is meaningless if such policies are not effectively implemented